Estoril qualifying notes

Qualifying session
Weather: Warm, overcast
The happiest man of the qalifying session was Kurt Thiim (1:40.31).
After hard days in Helsinki and Donington the fast Dane showed a
great performance and conquered the first position for tomorrow's...

Qualifying session

Weather: Warm, overcast

The happiest man of the qalifying session was Kurt Thiim (1:40.31).
After hard days in Helsinki and Donington the fast Dane showed a
great performance and conquered the first position for tomorrow's Top
Qualifying session. On the other hand the unhappiest man was Alessandro
Nannini. Second fastest in the free practice session, Nannini went out
but had to come back to the pits with engine problems. And although his
mechanics made a great effort to change Nannini's engine in time, they
were two minutes late and Nannini disappeared in big disappointment, too
frustrated to give any comment.

6 - Kurt Thiim (Mercedes): "Great, man, we've achieved a Top-Fifteen
placement. And believe me, this was a rather relaxed lap, a 1:39 time
might have been possible. Thank god we had the possibility to do three
days of testing on the Nrburgring, so we were able to make a big step
forward concerning balance and tyres."

26 - Giancarlo Fisichella (1:40.94/Alfa Romeo) was only beaten by Thiim
and left the pits with a shining smile on his face: "Now I got the new
95 car. And I tell you, this car is fantastic, as is the balance and
my time also. But I don't know, what will happen on Sunday. For this
will be a hard race for the tyres and nobody knows, if it is possible to
reach the finish on the first set of tyres."

1 - Klaus Ludwig (1:41.08/Opel) made the manufacturers triplet on the
first three psitions complete with his third fastest lap of the session:
"I had to push a little bit, but I lost some tenth of a second, when
I had to take my foot from the pedal in the fast right because of
Nicola Larini, who just did a slow lap. Its a pity, but never mind: Its
tomorrow, when it really counts."

8 - Nicola Larini (1:41.18) was only one tenth slower than Ludwig and
seemed to be rather satisfied: "I made the right tyre choice and look
forward to the race now. For I'm sure: our tyres will stand the distance
and we won't be forced to change tyres during the race."

19 - Michael Bartels (1:41.28) was content with his 6th position, but
not with his time: "This wasn't a great lap. Okay, I wanted to do a safe
qualifying lap, guaranteeing that I haven't to do another one. But to be
faster three or for tenths of a second would have been quite nice."

9 - Manuel Reuter (1:41.29) achieved 7th position although he was
suffering from food poisoning: "Regarding that I didn't sleep all night
and we had a lot of problems yesterday and this morning I'm quite happy.
And now I have to go to bed."

4 - Jan Magnussen (1:41.79) looked very relaxed after his lap and said:
"I hadn't to push very hard, as I just wanted to achieve a Top 15
position. Hopefully I choose the right tyres, but I won't know, before
the first race is finished."

2 - Keke Rosberg (1:42.33) was 15th and last who qualified for Top
Qualifying A: "Thic was a narrow escape. And I couldn't have reacted, if
somebody would have gone faster. Because a better time wouldn't have ben
possible for me. I did five laps and couldn't achieve a better time. And
what is worse: I'm standing a little bit in the dark, just don't know
what's going wrong."